Southern Baptists—the largest Protestant denomination in America, with just under 16.3 million members in nearly 44,000 local congregations—have some awareness that they are out of step with the broader culture in which they live. As Evangelicals, they expect to be. Indeed, if they were not a significant degree out of step with the larger culture, at least on moral issues, they would be concerned that instead of influencing the culture, they were being too influenced by it—that instead of being salt and light they were being salted and lit by the culture.
However, there are occasions when Southern Baptists are themselves startled with just how much they are marching to the beat of a different drummer than the wider culture around them.
This week LifeWay Research, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources (the publishing and research entity of the Southern Baptist Convention), released research and survey data which revealed that while 50 percent of Americans say that it is “morally acceptable to ask for a physician’s aid in taking his or her life,” almost 9 out of 10 (88 percent) of Southern Baptist pastors strongly disagreed with that position.
A similar polarity surfaced on the question of embryo destructive stem cell research. While 66 percent of the American public agreed that such research is “morally acceptable” given the potential for medical breakthroughs, 76 percent of Southern Baptists pastors “strongly disagreed” and an additional 14 percent “somewhat disagreed” with such embryonic research.
Clearly, Southern Baptists are marching to a beat of a different drummer than their non-Southern Baptist neighbors on these controversial issues.
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Diana Butler Bass is a religion scholar and author of Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. She blogs at 
Tony Campolo is Professor Emeritus at Eastern University and author of The God of Intimacy and Action: Reconnecting Ancient Spiritual Practices, Evangelism, and Justice, with Mary Darling. He blogs at 
Rod Dreher is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News and author of Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots. He blogs at 
Bruce Feiler is the author of seven books, including Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses. He blogs at 
Dan Gilgoff is Politics Editor at Beliefnet and author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War. He blogs at 
David Kuo served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush and is the author of Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction. He blogs at 
Dr. Richard Land is president of The Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and author of The Divided States of America? What Liberals AND Conservatives are missing in the God-and-country shouting match!
Michele McGinty is a mom and a student at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. She blogs at 
Brian McLaren is a pastor, musician, and author of Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope. He blogs at 
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Jim Wallis is executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal and author of God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It. He blogs at
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